Lo rider

After Saturday’s nail-biting victory over Toledo, UMass fans realized that the future was indeed bright — even when compared to the luminescent excitement of the present.

Papa Lo, a freshman power forward that was touted as the “next” Stephane Lasme, got his first real glimpse of action and impressed coach Ford, the fans and the Springfield Republican.

Ron Chemilis had an article this morning touting Lo and the emergence of what may very well be the best recruiting class UMass has seen in the past decade.

“I’ve got to go to the bench more,” Ford said. “The way we play, our starters are playing way too many minutes.”

Then later:

“Matt Glass, Papa Lo, Max Groebe, Gary Correia, they need to play more,” Ford said. “They’re ready.”

Meanwhile, Gary Forbes, the senior leader for the Minutemen, was named the Atlantic 10 player of the week … again:

Forbes averaged 23.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in a pair of wins for the Minutemen…scored 22 points, including 17 in the second half, and pulled down seven rebounds in Massachusetts’ 83-80 victory at Boston College on Dec. 12…scored a team-high 25 points on Dec. 15 as UMass turned aside Toledo, 68-61…shot 15-of-28 from the field and 18-for-19 from the line on the week…named the A-10 Player of the Week for the second time this season.

Forbes is the No. 23 top scorer in the country.

Another interesting stat via the A-10 release was the amount of five-win teams in November. In 2005 there were zero, last year there were four, and there is currently five: Duquesne, UMass, URI, Saint Louis and Xavier.

It appears the A-10 is slowly getting back into the upswing.

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As most (if not all) of you have seen, the men’s soccer team lost to Ohio State in the national semis after what will be considered the best season in team history.

Zach Simmons was named to the all-tournament team and has been dubbed a third-team All American.

All that from a former walk on.

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 UPDATE: Today is Stephane Lasme’s birthday… happy birthday big fella.

Frozen futbol

Hoodies, gloves, jackets and scarves are not the typical garb for a soccer game.

Then again, Massachusetts isn’t a typical soccer state.

As another New England winter slowly settled on the Pioneer Valley, soccer in Amherst kept going. The UMass men’s soccer team went to new heights, defeated old rivals and bit by bone-chilling bit made its way to the College Cup for the first time in school history.

UMass is very much an underdog and sticks out among the power from the South (Wake Forest and Virginia) and the always daunting persona that surrounds Ohio State.

The Minutemen have a nice facility, but Rudd doesn’t hold a candle to the major soccer complexes in the West and South. Coach Sam Koch has his office in the basement of Boyden, and you can smell the chlorine from the upstairs pool when you walk down the narrow concrete corridor.

Everything about the UMass program has soccer experts scratching their heads. There is a slight tradition of excellence within its region, but the Minutemen have seldom made any headlines outside the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Springfield Republican. UMass has had trouble making the Atlantic 10 tournament the past few years — the NCAAs were a pipedream.

The College Cup was simply a dream.

I don’t know where the credit goes with all of this. Obviously Koch put the team together and the team had to play the games, but how do you manufacture momentum? How does a team come together at the perfect time, with the perfect bracket and the ability to score at just the right time?

It almost seems like something is surrounding this team … like it doesn’t know the magnitude of what it’s doing or that it has already positioned itself within the conversation of the best UMass teams of all time.

The Minutemen snuck into this spot, but they did it with the cards they were dealt. UMass is the only school in the College Cup that was not ranked at the end of the season (Wake No. 1, OSU No. 14, Va. Tech No. 8), which further illustrates just how vital and unexpected this momentum is.

Koch has a week to prepare the team for Ohio State, and hopefully it can maintain its steady course toward the National Championship. Meanwhile Rudd Field will continue to freeze as the aluminum bleachers become dull under another layer of winter.

Perhaps this whole season was a flash in the pan, but who is going to complain? The soccer team is giving us something to watch and hope for while the other fall teams sit and wait for next year.

At some point Koch is going to walk down the dark, musky hallway that leads to his office and think about all of this. He will think about this season and what it means to his school and his already-illustrious career in Amherst. He and those that have paid attention will remember 2007.

It was the year the frozen New England basketball school made good and caught momentum’s tiger tail all the way to the history books.

Soccer savior

Leave it to the soccer team to clean up a pretty disappointing weekend.

Sam Koch and the UMass men’s soccer team played through icy conditions at Rudd Field to defeat Central Connecticut State and move on to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time in school history. I watched the interviews on UMassAthletics.com and Sam Koch, in typical fashion, was brief and to the point.

We’re in New England and fields freeze when it goes below 32 degrees and to not play, I didn’t really understand, but I was going to do whatever they told me to do. We were ready to play right now, we wanted to play right now, but if we had to play tomorrow we would have done that as well.

What threw me off was the quote from Central Connecticut’s side, more specifically Sean Green:

UMass definitely deserved to win today; they were the better side today. I don’t think the game should have been played today, I thought the referees initial decision was a correct one, not to play the game because of the surface it certainly deteriorated our performance from the first whistle to the last whistle of the game. We had to totally change our style of play. The footing for our players was certainly different from the footing of their players. They were prepared for a hard surface, we were not. Not to take away from their performance, I think that UMass played exceptionally well and they had a great game.

Not sure how one team can have better footing than another. Either way good win and a solid chaser after football and basketball fell in the Midwest.

Orange eclipse

Every once in awhile, the planets align perfectly and leave us in a state of ecstatic bewilderment.

It happened last night — twice.

On the same evening that the UMass men’s soccer team beat Boston College to move on to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, the men’s basketball team added a signature win to its resume.

Beating Syracuse is different than the marquee wins of years past. When the Maroon and White beat UConn in 2004, it was a slower, Lappas-style game and the win ended up being nothing more than a line on Steve’s resume (and a wonderful college memory for me). Last year UMass needed to beat Louisville to prove that it was something more than a twin-tower-team beating up on the bottom-feeders of college basketball.

Last night, we were all given a firm affirmation that Travis Ford’s offense works, that his conditioning works and — most importantly — that his style can win when implemented. It actually worked so well that it broke a Carrier Dome record for points by an opposing team (107).

While the defense was lacking, UMass exhibited exactly what it’s going to bring to the table. It’s going to run to a point where its fans are uncomfortable, and yelling, and swearing — or maybe that was just me.

The win in the Carrier Dome confirmed that anything is possible for this team, that preseason stipulations are null and void, and that UMass may have reloaded when it lost Rashaun Freeman and Stephane Lasme … it didn’t just start over again.

But, then again, maybe the Minutemen did start over in some regards. UMass has a slew of new faces, a new system and a tempo I still can’t believe. Never did I ever expect a UMass team to put up 100 points.

Not even against the Jacksonville States of the world.

Beating Syracuse also made UMass relevant again. Some may argue last year’s NIT run helped, but even the announcers couldn’t remember who we beat (at one point Jarvis said UMass LOST to Alabama). The Minutemen went into the Carrier Dome and proved that they are one of the best teams in the Northeast, and 20,000 Syracuse fans and anyone watching Sportscenter learned that firsthand.

Perhaps the most fitting part about last night’s win was that it was on ESPN Classic. Nov. 28, 2007 may be a day UMass fans look back on with a knowing smirk. We were given a glimpse of potential and what happens when a fun, athletic style is brought to the Pioneer Valley.

The UMass proud got to see Gary Forbes step up, Dante Milligan play beyond his size and the continued progression of Ricky Harris, who, in my opinion, plays like a combination of Anthony Anderson and Shannon Crooks, which is nice… real nice.

Now it’s off to Indiana to play an IUPUI team that UMass should beat. But there lies the rub in all of this. Can Ford maintain momentum, keep on the press and put away the teams he should? Or is it possible that UMass is the same team we’ve grown to love and hate — the team that gives us rollercoaster seasons with unfortunate and unforgivable losses?

I can only hope, but that’s the best part of being a fan. That hope is what wakes the neighbors on random Wednesday evenings when all they can hear is solitary screams from the next-door basement.

It’s what adds an extra skip to your step as you stare at the sky and hope the planetary eclipse stays true just a little bit longer.

Like a basketball blocking out the Orange sun.

UMass hangover

Wow, what a weekend. So good, I somehow vanished for an extra day.

The football team is heading back to the playoffs and once again has to face off against an always-dangerous Patriot League team (paging Colgate). The men’s soccer team is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history. Hoops continues to play fast and somewhat effective. And hockey, well they tied and beat Boston College — and that’s better than birthday cake … especially since I saw a B.C. hockey fan at a Rocky Mountain Rage game on Saturday.

He now knows that no matter where he is, be it Commonwealth Ave. or a random hockey rink in Broomfield, CO., there will always be someone to vocalize how much “B.C. Sucks.”

Anyway, I tried to sit down and assemble this crazy, borderline emotional weekend of UMass sports and was simply baffled. If you couldn’t already tell, I have a soft spot for the soccer team and hope it can beat Boston U. at home. Coach Koch deserves this — he is by far one of the most unsung coaches and people at UMass.

Football continues to look eerily familiar to last year, just replace Lafayette with Fordham. I hope Brown isn’t looking past this Rams team. I can’t imagine he is.

I’m actually kind of excited to hear Larry Coker call this game.

As far as hoops and hockey are concerned, I can’t get a full read on these teams yet. Hockey has a different identity than years past, but it is upholding a constant progression toward the top of Hockey East, and that’s all any of us can ask for.

The basketball team has once again played absolutely nobody of merit, but this year that may be a good idea. Get the kids some confidence. Let them shoot and run against teams that are going to spend a lot of time catching up.

I wish I had more time for this, but there is just too much, and that’s a good thing. Between work and attempting to organize myself for my first trip home in almost three years, I’ve slipped a little bit on this blog, and I apologize.

UMass athletics has been incredibly special recently, and I can’t do it justice right now.

And, as weird as it sounds, I couldn’t be happier.

All roads lead to URI

For two years my fall beat at the Collegian was men’s soccer and the always-enjoyable Coach Sam Koch.

Both years (2003 and 2004) the team had ups and downs, and both years the team missed the Atlantic 10 Tournament on the last day of the season. The Rhode Island Rams were the spoilers and beat the Minutemen a combined 5-0 — both times in Kingston.

Oh yea, they did it again in 2005, in the first round of the A-10 tournament.

Here we go again.

The Minutemen, a No. 3 seed, defeated Dayton on penalty kicks and will face the No. 2 seeded Rams in the A-10 semifinals tonight in Dayton. UMass hasn’t made it to the semis since 2002 — that’s right, one year before I started covering the team.

Koch has gone through several keepers with a variety of different skills during the past five years. He had Colin Burns, a big-bodied goalie that was aggressive and athletic, but not much in the air. Then he had Nick Billman, who would play conservative and then jump at anything near the goal.

Then Zach Simmons came, knocked Billman back to Saint Louis and became one of the best goalies in UMass history.

It’s fitting that Simmons made the save to set up this UMass/Rhode Island match up. He had to work his way from the UMass club soccer team, to backup, to starter. He is literally a combination of his two predecessors — he’s big, agile and aggressive.

Although he won’t say it, Koch knows how much of a pain the Rams have been in years past. To use a term I heard on Scrubs, Koch is a “Do I Think” talker. As in, whenever you ask him a question, he responds with “Do I…”

I remember asking him about the URI game in 2004 and whether it was a big deal to get over the hump.

His answer was something along the lines of:

“Do I think it’s important to beat Rhode Island specifically? No, I don’t. Do I think it’s important to win this game and make the tournament? Yes, I do.”

Do I think coach remembers how his season ended three of the past four years?

Why yes, yes I do.

 … and so do I.

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Allie Sabitus, a high school women’s lacrosse player from Upstate New York, signed a letter of intent with UMass.

“The more I visited UMass, and met the coaches and met the players, the more I just fell in love with it,” she said. “The coach really told me a lot about their program, and it’s just where I want to be.”

Win one for Koch

Sam Koch deserves a great season.

Koch, the UMass men’s soccer coach for the past 17 years, has always teetered on the line between calm and excited; happy and mad; successful and unsuccessful. His teams play hard and together but very seldom have a standout star (save for the occasional Ptah Myers).

This year is more of the same for the UMass footballers (7-4-0) — the team has all of its scoring spread out across eight players, four of which have multiple goals. This is good for an Atlantic 10 team considering the Northeast, A-10 style tends to grind-it-out and force the close shot — however and with whomever you can.

Koch also has a keeper that can handle that style of play when conversely applied.

Zack Simmons is exactly what coach needed between the pipes. For a long time the Minutemen split time (SEE: Nick Billman and Colin Burns) or simply suffered from sub-par goal tending. Simmons has posted a .81 GAA with four shutouts this year.

I wonder if this success has anything to do with the assistance of Jon Davy — the assistant coach for the Minutemen? Davy has an impressive list of goal tending accomplishments and has worked with Simmons ever since he walked on the team. Since then he has set the single-season record for shutouts (10) and has contributed to an impressive decline in goals against: 1.93 in 2004 to .81 to date in 2007.

The Collegian has been following the team closely and wrote a preemptive article in regards to the team “eyeing” an A-10 championship. Just so you know, Koch hates preemptive articles — I wish I could see his reaction to the headline.

Especially since this quote is an example of how much coach looks to the future:

“We’re concerned about continuing to improve and eliminating mistakes,” Koch said before Friday’s match. “We’re far from being in the [Atlantic 10] Tournament. We have to win three or four more games. Can we get one this weekend? Odds aren’t in our favor. But I’ll tell you what – [qualifying for the tournament] will validate everything for us.”

That’s vintage Sam Koch right there — just another reason why he deserves some success.

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Juan Moliere was named to the A-10 sports honor roll this week:

Juan Moliere – Massachusetts

Sophomore, San Juan, PR/Collegio San Ignacio

Moliere captured gold in the 50-yard freestyle (21.19) and 100-yard freestyle (47.32) events on Oct. 13 in Massachusetts’ 124-119 loss to Boston University…swam the lead leg of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay (1:28.45) and the anchor leg of the winning 200-yard medley relay (1:37.34) on Oct. 19 as the Minutemen downed Stony Brook, 182-117.

Here’s the rest of the list.

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Kyle Baumgartner, a women’s basketball recruit, has opted to go to the University of Akron in lieu of UMass — and other schools on her list.

I had not heard anything about her, but my access to women’s basketball recruiting is zero at best:

Akron offered the 6-foot-3 Baumgartner a full scholarship this summer after a team camp. She chose the Zips over Kent State, Northeastern (Mass.), Manhattan and Division II California University of Pennsylvania. UMass and Lafayette (Penn.) were other colleges that showed strong interest.

Here’s the rest of the article.

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The Sports Network had the updated FCS poll and a description of each team:

Massachusetts (6-1) stayed in the No. 4 position with a 24-7 Colonial Athletic Association win over Northeastern, and earned four first-place votes.

Yup, here’s the rest.